I would offer you here, proof that the policed state is already here, but more importantly, how people power is all that is required to put this evil back into the genies bottle.
The first is a video of Special Constable Peter Lightfoot, although not so light with his fists!!

I have made a FOI request to Greater Manchester Police, requesting as to whether Peter Lightfoot has undergone the Common purpose graduation course. You can view the request here : (Scroll down to bottom of the page)

The second link shows how the police and Special Constables are basicaly inventing laws and rulings to satisfy their need to dominate and of course their need to feel important. Yet more importantly, this video proves beyond all doubt the power of the people when we stick together in sending these little Hitler's running into their corner full of shame and fear :

So the answer to CCTV is for we the people to turn the tables and as you will see they do not like it. Notice also the little Chinese import fresh from Tianiman Square... I wonder is he one of the Illegal immigrants exposed by Green?

TAKE ON THE BULLIES THEY ARE THE COWARDS..._________________KEEP IT REAL

Last edited by Life on Thu Dec 04, 2008 10:19 am; edited 1 time in total

Hi Life. good couple of video clips. Love the over zealous security guard making a complete dipstick of himself_________________JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12

I think the Police State has been in the making since the early nineties. I can say this as I was a Special Constable at Grimsby in 1992 & '93. The training largely involved S/C (Special Constables) and some regular Police who used an empty school to provide scenario-based training sessions for S/C's. The system, from what I can remember is not a knowledge base of law, but largely relies on experienced policeman/woman to encourage and provide scenario-based training and on the job experience for its efficiency. There was this extreme focus on reciting the caution: "You do not have to say anything unless you wish to do so, but what you do say may be given in evidence, do you understand". So if an S/C was in doubt, just build up to the Caution or radio for help. This didn't seem right somehow.

I was out on patrol with both experienced S/C's and Regulars and to be honest I was clueless as to the law really. I felt like a spare part just providing uniformed presence. I also found that most people were very easily intimidated by Police presence and quite frankly I felt they had no reason to be. Ask an S/C what they know about the law and they'll freeze up (as seen in the last video above). There isn't the time for p/t 'hobby bobby's' to learn the law unless they're super keen. One thing they did focus on and that is recording evidence with pocket note books and focusing on writing statements for prosecution in third person. They love bureacracy because it keeps the justice system in operation. The S/C training is a sham to be honest and the Police Force is not the monster society thinks it is. Always challenge an S/C into their knowledge if you can. Be smarter on the law than them. They rely on experience and second-hand information from other 'Bobbies' for their knowledge and actions mainly.

In the end I left because I felt dissatisfied with the training, over-emphasis on witness statements with the minimum of evidence and the fact that they had me on the streets in uniform before I felt I was ready or had the knowledge. One has to be very very careful what you say or do in front of a copper because they will use it against you as sure as eggs are eggs. A year after I handed my uniform and ID in and I had moved to Hull they sent two detectives round to my house claiming that I still had the uniform and that I could be arrested for posession of it. They even threatened to search the premises, it was unbelievable really considering I volunteered my services for them. I never heard from them again.

The moral of this story is, have faith in your own knowledge and rights as a free citizen, especially when our freedoms are being compromised by the inept and overbearing Police State._________________"The likelihood of one individual being right increases in direct proportion to the intensity to which others are trying to prove him[her] wrong."
- - Harry Segall
"The best way to control the opposition is to lead it ourselves." Lenin 1917

Mind you i got stopped by the police many years ago as a teenager and they asked me for my name. When I questioned if I had to give it to them (as i had obviously not done anything wrong) a burly copper got out the car with a big stick and said yes this is why holding his stick in his hand. Being about 16 at the time and in a fairly dark and quiet street i thought it would be wiser to comply.
Lost a lot of respect for some of the police since that day._________________JO911B.
"for we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against principalities, against powers, against rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits in high places " Eph.6 v 12

......Speakers at the conference urged the government to radically overhaul the benefits system - including making more single parents work, funding universal childcare and providing higher maternity leave payments.
Other plans include giving private firms and charities the right to bid to run more public services.
The organisation is launching policy reports in five different areas - public services, welfare, immigration, crime and justice and foreign policy.
Under the plans, which have been devised by former cabinet minister Alan Milburn, 10-year "franchises" for services such as GPs and colleges would be up for tender.
Others proposals include making grant-funded students who drop out of university pay back part or all the money.
Also, forcing local authorities to spend more money on youth services and the creation of civilian security force consisting of military trainers, civil servants, police officers, judges and other logistical staff.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/7756027.stm

With the information given by Tony, the next move is to listen to this :

Quote
Parenti says that fascism is a new order and consciousness that served the same old power structure and promised to solve the ills of the many while protecting the interests of the few. He answers in detail who financed the Fascist parties and what services the fascists rendered in return. Many of the measures enacted by fascists were frighteningly similar to those enacted today: They include the privatization of state owned enterprises, reduction of corporate taxes and inheritance taxes, defeat of unions, and the suspension of civil liberties.

The WoT is a war against ordinary people everywhere, including in domestic UK, and this is the proof.

It's clear the evil elite circles, the wheels within wheels, covens within covens, see this as their last chance to grab global power in a technocratic New World Order. But that they can also see pockets of resistance gathering around the world.

They will have to roll out the next major 'spectacular' some time soon and we are facing civil war anytime.

Surely the most sensible approach is to cut off support for the rotting centre. It's being choked to death deliberately by the NWO parasitic ivy. To then start to re-create city-states on the basis of existing royal charters or much smaller community barter systems such as credit unions.

To choose trusted freedom fighters to appoint new magistrates and other officials. To prepare a trustworthy network of justice then to re-divide up the land. Not to allow things to decend into anarchy, that's what they want.

In terms of the two videos, PC Lightfoot is clearly guilty of a serious assault and we should all be demanding his prosecution.

Similarly, the officers who demanded the man stop filming in his own garden are guilty of trespass and malfeasance in a public office and similar complaints should be made about them if their force can be identified.

The security guard attempting to detain the photographers is guilty of Common assault.

Just to continue the story of Special Constable Peter Lightfoot who beat the daylights out of a British soldier on camera.

I sent this FOI request to Greater Manchester Police :

In accordance with the FOIA 2000.

Dear Rebecca Rice.

Could you please confirm or otherwise in relation to one of your Special Police Constables, in this case; Special Constable Peter Lightfoot, as to whether he has undergone the Common Purpose graduation course

I write in connection with your request for information dated 02/12/2008, which was received by Greater Manchester Police on 03/12/2008, for the following information:

Your Request
Could you please confirm or otherwise in relation to one of your Special Police Constables, in this case; Special Constable Peter Lightfoot, as to whether he has undergone the Common Purpose graduation course.

In accordance with the Act, this letter represents a refusal notice for this particular request. Greater Manchester Police can neither confirm nor deny that is holds the information you requested as the duty in Section 1(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 does not apply, by virtue of the following exemption:

The following exemption applies: s40(5) – Personal Information which is an absolute and classed based exemption and relates to personal information which can neither be confirmed or denied.

However this should not be taken as conclusive evidence that the information you requested exists or does not exist.
Complaint Rights
Your attention is drawn to the attached sheet, which details your right of complaint.

Should you have any further inquiries concerning this matter, please write or contact me, on telephone number 0161 856 2528 quoting the reference number above.

Yours sincerely,

Corine Phipps
Information Access Team

This is not a Blighty I am prepared to accept...How about you?_________________KEEP IT REAL

Maybe the case, but it is a good aim and I will do all I can to show people we can do whatever we wish once we move beyond the idea of division. A good backdrop to create the canvas.... we need only paint.._________________KEEP IT REAL

Civil war is the very nastiest thing and we really do need to do what we can to hold things together.

There's still real energy in the archetypes we learnt about, and the idea of freedom ...

I like to think of the traditions of arts and crafts, particularly at this moment how beautiful the Celtic forms with their organic curves,
a grid imposed upon them
cannot restrain their natural exuberance.

Big Brother would like to watch you. But he can't, because his computer has crashed.

That was the problem occupying European Union (EU) interior ministers Thursday in Prague as they debated the 27-member bloc's continuing inability to share the fingerprints and photos of foreigners entering the border-free Schengen zone because of computer bugs.

It is a classic EU problem. On the one hand, one of the bloc's founding principles is the free movement of people - a principle which led to the abolition of border controls between almost all EU member states with the creation of the so-called Schengen zone.

But on the other hand, governments across the EU are under ever-increasing pressure to defend their citizens against unwanted foreigners ranging from terrorists to unregistered grape-pickers.

That led the EU countries which founded Schengen in 1995 to create a database allowing them to exchange key data on travellers arriving in the area, in order to track potentially undesirable people.

The original Schengen Information System (SIS) focused on text-only data, such as the traveller's name and passport number.

When the EU took in 10 new members in 2004 and began planning how to take them into Schengen, officials decided that it was the perfect opportunity to create a new SIS, capable of processing not just text information, but 'biometric' data such as fingerprints and photos.

But the new system quickly ran into problems. SIS II stations set up in individual member states were unable to communicate with the central server in Strasbourg, France, while experts reported that some of the data sent through the system simply disappeared en route.

And the technical problems rapidly became political as debate erupted over whether Schengen hopefuls such as Poland should be allowed into the border-free zone before the new system was in place.

After a row which saw the newcomers accuse Schengen veterans of bias, unfair treatment and simple incompetence, the EU decided to put back the launch of SIS II to September 2009, and to temporarily upgrade the original SIS so that the newcomers could use it.

That compromise went into operation in December 2007, as nine EU newcomers, from Estonia in the north to Malta in the south, joined the upgraded Schengen system - catchily renamed SISone4ALL.

But while the temporary system went smoothly into operation, the problems with its permanent replacement dragged on. In December, officials confirmed that bugs in the system had put the 2009 deadline, too, out of reach.

That sparked a new political row, with some states warning that EU newcomers Bulgaria and Romania would not be able to join Schengen without SIS II, in a virtual re-run of the 2007 debate.

The row came to a head in Prague Thursday, as EU interior ministers called for an analysis on why SIS II is still not working by June - and held out the option of scrapping the project entirely.

The analysis should contain a backup plan for abandoning SIS II, so that 'we have conclusions on both routes and can opt for A or B', said Czech Interior Minister Ivan Langer, who chaired the meeting.

And with SIS II now facing a make-or-break test in the hands of EU experts, it looks like the battle between Big Brother and the computer bugs could yet come to a painful, and messy, end._________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

Well having left GMP alone for a while, today was the day to continue the saga. I rang Corine Phipps the main mind at GMP FOI requests to get a feel for the people involved in handling our requests...The term :

" I Will Not confirm or deny"...Is ringinhg in my lug holes still!

Now as I understand democracy, when one becomes a civil servant one loses the right to have ones name withheld. I have to say the way in which GMP Police handled these requests was piss poor, I would therefore conclude that GMP is riddled with Common Purpose subversives.

On 11 February 2009 I rang Corine Phipps for a summary of the FOI requests made since November 2008,, in particular I asked if Peter lightfoot was still in the employ of GMP, I have to say the conversation was pathetic. I have to conclude the team operating the FOI requests have absolutely no interest in complying with FOI, they are there to give out as little information as humanly possible. I rang Corine again and asked if she herself had undergone the Common Purpose graduation course, her reply was very suspect I quote :

"I am not prepared to give you personal data over the phone; I will not
confirm or deny whether I have taken the course."

I then suggested that based on her response, I would assume she has, in that if she had not, she would be happy to tell me so, she was now very angry and said she would sue me if I put forward any unsubstantiated information about her, I replied that all publicity is good publicity in this case, to which she again replied! If you put any information, unsubstantiated on your website I will sue...goodbye" With that it hung up...

So we can clearly see almost all democratic institutions we pay for are acting out the CP dance, or is that Opera, nope its definitely dramatics...

So ladies and gentlemen of the real English constitutional
Jury...WHAT DO YOU MAKE OF THAT?

Perhaps you could take a different approach under the FOIA? Something like:

"Can you tell me if GMP are aware of a secret organisation called Common Purpose? If so what steps have been taken to prevent Common Purpose affecting the manner in which the duties of individual police officers are carried out?"

Thanks for the input Red, GMP are well aware of CP given they have sent me invoices of monies spent on CP courses. What they are doing at this time is leaving out the names of the people who took the courses, using the data protection act as the reason. I also recieved a reply in relation to Peter Lightfoot in which they refused to: 'Confirm or Deny', whether Lightfoot has undergone the CP course.

It comes back to the Civil Service being able to hide from the very people they are paid to serve, this is not acceptable by any means, but while people do nothing they get away with flouting the very fabric of our constitution

Slowley but surely they are dissolving the whole ethos of FOI by offering less and less information in the FOI answers using data protection.
Lancashire County Council have complied with yet another FOI request I put forward asking how many members of the council have undergone the CP courses...They claim only one member Councillor Hazel Harding to have undergone CP. We know this to be false therefore CP have accomplished the majority of the leading positions within our system to the point we have CP graduates handling FOI requests.

The connotations of this are extreme in the fact that CP then has time to destroy many of the records thus requested, putting forward the lowest figures for monies spent and still they protect the people actually operating for CP by leaving out the names.
From what I understand of CP in the North of England, we seem to have more CP graduates than most parts of the nation, on that basis they have more reason to hide all names and true figures. The question is; 'Are we going to accept this', or do we form some sort of pressure group to have MP's act on our behalf to ensure compliance with FOI requests?
My MP has refused point blank to even aknowledge the fact let alone investigate.

If our system is so subverted as would seem, then failiure to act now will ensure CP accomplishes its aims without recourse in the future.

Those spending their time putting forward FOI requests are slowley but surely complying with this 'under parr' FOI response from the system, therefore allowing CP to operate in this way. We should demand FOI requests are dealt with in the manner for which the FOI system was set up in the first place, bowing down in full acceptance to there megre compliance, only teaches the children to keep on decieving, and we fail to get the answers we seek.

Yet again I find my sites under attack, I have not been able to publish my sites for the last eight days, they yesterday removed a page on the Galactic Alignment from my web wizard after I had updated the page. The galactic alignment information is breaking the whole code of the 2012 Olympic ritual, they do not lkike this. They have allowed the front pages of the sites to publish, giving the impression to those who use the sites that all is well, so not only are they preventing me from publishing the changes made to the sites, they are watching in real time.

I wonder...Is this also because on lifeinthemix.org, we expose the sickness that is the schools 'virtual world' second life, the fact they are teaching our 5 year olds how to 'FINGER', yes finger a girl, and having our children question their heterosexuality on the grounds to do so is to be 'homophobic'....? BT have a major role in this virtual world, so I am suspicious at best.
If nothing else, my time with BT has further exposed their real motivations in relation to the virtual world, so nothing lost in truth.

We need to form a group so we can together use the FOI to best usage, by coordinated requests to the same departments at once covering all angles.

What say you people are you ready to up the anti?_________________KEEP IT REAL

Perhaps this has already been posted here but I've been off the net long enough to have missed this one:-

Quote:

"The CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK"

ToryGraph
Some extracts from a article in The Telegraph, 7 Feb 2009, follow...

CIA warns Barack Obama that British terrorists are the biggest threat to the US

American spy chiefs have told the President that the CIA has launched a vast spying operation in the UK to prevent a repeat of the 9/11 attacks being launched from Britain.

...

Intelligence briefings for Mr Obama have detailed a dramatic escalation in American espionage in Britain, where the CIA has recruited record numbers of informants in the Pakistani community to monitor the 2,000 terrorist suspects identified by MI5, the British security service.

A British intelligence source revealed that a staggering four out of 10 CIA operations designed to thwart direct attacks on the US are now conducted against targets in Britain.

...

The CIA has already spent 18 months developing a network of agents in Britain to combat al-Qaeda, unprecedented in size within the borders of such a close ally, according to intelligence sources in both London and Washington.

...

"Around 40 per cent of CIA activity on homeland threats is now in the UK. This is quite unprecedented."

John Harris in his superb expose of corporate UK, once known as UK plc
now known as UK Ltd.
John explains how to respond or rather how not to respond to the police when asked for your name. This video is dynamite if one wants to fully understand why we are all victims of the corporate system :

John Harris in his superb expose of corporate UK, once known as UK plc
now known as UK Ltd.
John explains how to respond or rather how not to respond to the police when asked for your name. This video is dynamite if one wants to fully understand why we are all victims of the corporate system :

EDIT - Unfortunately, John was submitting to someone else and begging, which goes against what he said in this video.

"On the 22nd day of March 2008 I personally went to Buckingham Palace to serve an Affidavit on Her Majesty the Queen. My Oath, (which has been signed and sealed by a solicitor) states quite clearly, that I now give Her Majesty 40 days to dismiss the traitors that reside in the Parliament of this country."

I do not know his position regarding that now. Elizabeth Windsor is a traitor too and a fictitious (person) monarch.

Having just had my ability to publish my sites restored, I find that after placing a report of police brutality against Bradford based Norman Scarth for insisting justice be done, my two sites Lifeinthemix.co.uk and Lifeinthemix2.co.uk have disappeared from my accounts.
Norman was battered and jailed for 4 years and then 2 years in the loony bin, so I feel his story needs to be known.

Upon ringing BT, they looked at the trail of action around my sites and found that at 6.58am Wednesday 18 February, one of my sites as yet unpublished was accessed and updated.
Of course I was tucked up in bed dreaming of yet more ways to expose the evil doers, so It was not I.

I have in the last week changed all my passwords etc, with very difficult passwords, so the chance anyone outside of BT accessing the accounts is almost zero.

Having spent the whole afternoon with BT trying to understand the situation, what I find is the fact that both sites that have disappeared will have to be rebuilt.

I think we can safety assume at this stage that British Intelligence have an open line into my accounts.

On that basis I must conclude, we are not about to enter a police state...we are already suffering the same._________________KEEP IT REAL

TOP secret contingency plans have been drawn up to counter the threat posed by a “summer of discontent” in Britain.*

The “double-whammy” of the worst economic crisis in living memory and a motley crew of political extremists determined to stir up civil disorder has led to the ­extraordinary step of the Army being put on ­standby.

MI5 and Special Branch are targeting activists they fear could inflame anger over job losses and payouts to failed bankers.

One of the most notorious anarchist websites, Class War, asks: “How to keep warm ­during the credit crunch? Burn a banker.”

Such remarks have rung alarm bells in Scotland Yard and the Ministry of Defence.

Intelligence sources said the police, backed by MI5, are determined to stay on top of a situation that could spiral out of control as the recession bites deep.

The chilling prospect of soldiers being drafted on to the streets has not been discounted, although it is regarded as a last resort.

What worries emergency planners most is that the middle classes, now struggling to cope with unemployment and repossessions, may take to the streets with the disenfranchised.

The source said “this potent cocktail is reminiscent of the poll tax riots which fatally wounded Margaret Thatcher’s government in 1990”.

Last night Scotland Yard vowed it was ready to face any threat. A source said: “We do have a policing plan in place and we have riot police officers trained for such measures.”

But other senior police leaders fear the force will be unable to cope.

Were that to be the case, the ­Government has a contingency plan to deploy troops on the streets of Britain’s major cities.

A senior source said: “This is a very real, and very serious, problem.

“I can tell you there have been crisis talks in Whitehall about this.

“Half the senior officers in Britain have been warning the Home Secretary about the dangerous effects that reducing police manpower may have this summer, especially in the industrial heartlands.

“We are not just talking about the problems of immigration and British jobs for British worker. We are also talking about mass unemployment.

“In many of our industrial cities, this will not be measured in the hundreds, but in the thousands. With unemployment, comes the risk of increased crime. Some forces, such as South Wales, have publically ­stated they would be swamped.

“Others are keeping it quiet, but you can be sure they are trying to make the Home Secretary listen, ­before it’s too late.”

The “protest season” is due to ­begin on April 1 with the G20 Summit in London next month, followed by the 60th anniversary of Nato in Strasbourg a few days later. May Day is also ­potentially a flashpoint.

Ministers cannot afford to allow ­latent public anger at Government policy to get out of hand if they are to maintain credibility through what promises to be ­Gordon Brown’s most testing period as Prime Minister.

The Stop the War coalition, orchestrating the G20 protest, said: “The first week of April could be a week of world leaders will never forget.”

The British authorities want to avoid a repeat of the rioting that scarred British cities in the 1980s Then, as now, the country was in recession with rising unemployment and deep public hostility to perceived social divisions.

Today that anger is focused on the banks, with their bonus culture surviving despite billions being paid in taxpayer bail-outs.

This has fomented in the outrage over news that senior executives will be rewarded for their failure.

Sir Fred Goodwin, former boss of RBS, has refused to hand back his Ł693,000-a-year-pension even as the ailing bank announced a Ł24billion loss last year, the single largest loss in British corporate history.

Early warnings of trouble ahead came from the furore over last months “British jobs for British workers” protest and wildcat strikes across the country.

This week Britain’s most senior police officer warned that the summer could bring a wave of protests orchestrated by extremists in which ordinary people, fired by their own anger and fear at the economic downturn – became “foot soldiers”.

Superintendent David Hartshorn, who heads the Met’s public order branch, identified the G20 as the possible start of a “summer of rage”.

Murray Benham, head of campaigns at the UK-based World Development Movement, accused Supt Hartshorn of “scaremongering”.

“Scaremongering from the police will not stop us because the price for failing is too high.

“People are understandably angry about the impact of the economic crisis on their jobs, savings and plans for the future.”

Additional reporting by James Fielding

* The sheer lunacy of people haha, so secret the Express is harping on about it_________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

Thought i'd ask a couple of cops on the Friday night club run what they thought of current affairs and they were to busy.
They refused to take a cd/dvd, but were extremely polite and courtious.
Later I found some cops apprehending a guy in an (ambulance) Drunk but hardly a threat?? Anyways sparked conversation which was going well then it was interrupted by a coleague. In short the cops are doing a job and allaying fears is not part of that!!
They didn't take lightly the comment I'll see you again lol
Oooh intimidation without a law to enforce wahoo!!
I also spotted a couple on the street (totally wierd can't find their card) Street Pastors or some such. Had to enquire but anyway they were approachable and pleasant _________________'Come and see the violence inherent in the system.
Help, help, I'm being repressed!'

“The more you tighten your grip, the more Star Systems will slip through your fingers.”

Justice in the UK – You could not make it up – start fighting back this is your country not a Police state

Motorist stopped by police for LAUGHING at wheel
A driver had the smile wiped off his face when he was stopped by police for laughing at the wheel.
Gary Sanders, 47, was speaking on a hands-free phone while driving to work when he got the giggles.
But Mersey Tunnels Police failed to see the funny side and ordered the Liverpool businessman to pull over.
A traffic officer told him: “Laughing while driving a car can be an offence.”
After lengthy questioning, the officer concluded there was nothing he could book Gary for and let him go.
But Gary, managing director of Spontex Workwear, was told to produce his licence at a police station which took a further hour and a half making him miss an important appointment.
He said: “I couldn’t believe it. I was driving very safely and took a call from a friend.
“He said something funny and I was laughing – simple as that. I never took my eyes off the road and I was in full control of the car.
“Then I saw a police car flashing its lights. He said I was laughing too much. I was kept there for 35 minutes answering these unrelated questions.
“It was no joke,” added Gary, who first told his story on BBC Radio Merseyside.
Supt Hagger of the Mersey Tunnels Police said he “didn’t know the full details”.

Call over 'blacklist data' row
Friday, March 6 09:09 am
The Government has been urged to take immediate action to outlaw the blacklisting of workers after new evidence that the practice was "rampant".
Unions and MPs expressed alarm after an investigation by the Information Commissioner revealed that major construction firms broke data protection laws by paying for information on their employees.
Deputy information commissioner David Smith said information on around 3,000 workers was held by the Consulting Association in paper files and a card index database.
Around 40 construction companies would send the association lists of people they were considering hiring to work on building sites and would then receive details from their files over the phone, he said.
Notes about individual workers included descriptions such as "ex-shop steward, definite problems", "Irish ex-Army, bad egg", while others related to workers who had raised concerns over health and safety issues on sites, such as asbestos removal.
Mr Smith said the companies - including household names and major players in the industry - must have known that what they were doing was wrong.
Alan Ritchie, general secretary of the building workers' union Ucatt, said: "Ucatt members know from bitter experience of being refused work that blacklisting exists in construction.
"However, the extent of the practice and the fact that most of the major companies in construction are involved in the practice is truly shocking.
"It is outrageous that construction workers have been barred from jobs simply for being trade unionists."
Ucatt said it believed Consulting Association was run by an individual formerly employed by the Economic League, the company involved in most of the blacklisting in the 1970s and 1980s.

Revealed: police databank on thousands of protesters

Films and details of campaigners and journalists may breach Human
Rights Act

Shocking footage shot by police, accompanied by their own critical
commentary, shows how their officers monitored campaigners and the
media and demanded personal information at last August's climate
camp demonstration in Kent

Police are targeting thousands of political campaigners in
surveillance operations and storing their details on a database for at
least seven years, an investigation by the Guardian can reveal.

Photographs, names and video evidence footage of people attending protests are routinely obtained by surveillance units and stored on an
"intelligence system". The Metropolitan police, which has pioneered
surveillance at demonstrations and advises other forces on the tactic,
stores details of protesters on Crimint, the general database used
daily by all police staff to catalogue criminal intelligence. It lists
campaigners by name, allowing police to search which demonstrations or
political meetings individuals have attended.

Disclosures through the Freedom of Information Act, court testimony,
an interview with a senior Met officer and police surveillance footage
obtained by the Guardian have established private information
about activists gathered through surveillance is being stored without
the knowledge of the people monitored.

Police surveillance teams are targeting journalists who cover
demonstrations, and are believed to have monitored members of the
press during at least eight protests over the last year.

The Guardian has found:

Activists "seen on a regular basis" as well as those deemed on the
"periphery" of demonstrations are included on the police databases,
regardless of whether they have been convicted or arrested.

Names, political associations and photographs of protesters from
across the political spectrum “from campaigners against the third
runway at Heathrow to anti-war activists “are catalogued.

Police forces are exchanging information about protesters stored on
their intelligence systems, enabling officers from different forces to
search which political events an individual has attended.

Lawyers said tonight they expect the Guardian's investigation to form
the basis of a legal challenge against the use of police surveillance
tactics.

Liberty, the human rights group, is challenging the police
surveillance tactics in a judicial review at the court of appeal. But
police appear not to have disclosed to the court that they were
transferring private details of campaigners to a database.

Corinna Ferguson, Liberty's legal officer, said: "A searchable
database containing photographs of people who are not even suspected
of criminal activity may well violate privacy rights under article 8
of the Human Rights Act. It is particularly worrying if peaceful
protesters are being singled out for surveillance."

Police surveillance footage from the climate camp demonstration in
Kent last August, obtained by the Guardian, reveals how journalists
are monitored as well as the often clumsy nature of the surveillance.

It shows police are interested in the names, clothing, whereabouts,
and personal details of protesters and journalists. Three members of
an ITV news crew, a Sky News cameraman and several photographers were
among members of the press monitored as they left the camp. Later in
the day journalists at a protest against the Kingsnorth coal-fired
power station, were followed by Â*surveillance officers to a McDonald's
restaurant. Police filmed them as they used the restaurant's Wi-Fi
connection to file their material.

Kent police have already apologised after official complaints about
the incident and intrusive stop and searches of journalists covering
the demonstration.

The National Union of Journalists has been assured that members of
the press were not being targeted after it took concerns to the Home
Office and senior police officers. The union documented at least
eight protests since last March where its members were "routinely"
photographed and filmed by police. Several journalists said police
officers they had never met knew their names. "We have put this to
police and the Home Office several times but they have always denied
the practice or sought to avoid answering the question," said Jeremy
Dear, the union's general secretary. "With this evidence there is no
credibility in doing so any longer."

Police have not disclosed the number of activists on the database. But
court testimony by surveillance officers has confirmed the existence
of a large intelligence system which, according to one officer,
contains "thousands" of campaigners.

Overt surveillance by police forward intelligence teams (Fits) or
evidence evidence gatherers (EGs) is designed to record potential criminal
activity and gather evidence useful intelligence. Pioneered by the Met's
public order branch in the late 1990s, the technique is used regularly
across the country. Surveillance officers use Â*"spotter cards" to
identify activists. Police have always denied surveillance is
conducted for the purposes of storing information on a database.

Information released by Scotland Yard under the Freedom of Information
Act has revealed that while raw surveillance material is stored in a
warehouse, material on certain individuals "is added to a corporate
intelligence database". Scotland Yard's disclosure, in response to
questions from NUJ lawyers, stated "generally, records are retained
for seven years".

Superintendent David Hartshorn, from the Met's public order branch,
conceded law-abiding campaigners were being added to the database. He
said individuals on the system included people convicted or suspected
of public order offences.

But he added "people we have seen on a regular basis involved but may
not have been charged or arrested" were also stored on the database.
He added that the data was reviewed every year. "In relation to what
we can keep on databases, we are governed quite strictly on that.
Obviously you've got the Data Protection Act but also, in terms of
intelligence, we have to justify what we are able to keep."

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